Location: Wakeman, OH

Hobbyist or Pro: Hobbyist

Experience: 6-9 yrs

Project Name: Halloween Router Bowl & Cutting Board

Wood Species: Black Walnut from my in-law’s property

Finish Used: GF Butcher Block Oil

Project Description:
This is just a twist on the Halloween Router bowl. I was able to cut the cutting board out of the top layer of my glueup prior to the actual glueup. This was initially a time-saving technique, but I was able to turn it into 2 items for party use. Momma received two presents, with minimal effort, and it seemed as I planned it that way. As you can see, the glueup went pretty well, and there is little issue at the seams.

Thought this might be something others could benefit from, as I do weekly on Marc’s site.

Hi Mark, since you are promoting ‘safety week’ at the moment, I thought I’d share a simple piece of router safety for a beginner. We’re all aware of avoiding climb-cuts, it’s one of the first router operating procedures we learn right after ‘don’t touch the spinning bit’ – yet I still managed to do it accidentally.

My router came with a small bench-top router-table, which works ok. It also has a big arrow on it to show which direction to feed the wood to prevent a climb-cut. So far so good – so how did I fail? I had just cut a groove in a piece of wood, and saw that it hadn’t quite cut to the line I was looking for, so I moved the fence forward about 1/16″ and ran the wood through again. You experts know exactly what happened next. By moving the fence forward – towards the bit while cutting a groove – I was now cutting with back edge of the blade, and despite feeding the wood in the direction of the arrow, this was a climb-cut.

My piece of wood shot across the garage like a bullet, and the bit bent like a banana. If you look closely at the photo of the bit, you will see a few pieces of the steel cutting blade also broke off – I have no idea where they went, but that is another reason I wear eye-protection.

Henry

So, did this ever happen to you? I can think of a number of times when I forgot about this and paid the price. Definitely something to keep in mind when making multiple passes at the router table.

I have a question about spiral router bits as I have no experience using them. I have a chance to get a couple but with limited funds right now, I only want to get ones that I would use frequently. What type (up/down/compression), what diameter, and what function would you use them. From everything I’ve read it looks like an up-cut bit is used for hand-held routing when doing mortises and a down cut for router table work for dadoes, rabbets grooves. What are your thoughts? Thanks and keep up the great work!

Our production quality solid carbide spiral bits combine effective chip removal with a continuous shearing action cut not obtained from a standard straight bit. You’ll get smoother cutting action with better results.

Up-cut Bits provide faster cutting while they pull chips up and out of the work or towards the router. They are excellent bits to use when cutting material in a router table since they tend to hold the work piece to the table itself. Ideal for mortise and tenons, grooving, slotting or routing deep blind holes. Down-cut Bits cut slower and push chips away from the router to eliminate top surface splintering. Use for pattern cutting or when going completely through the board as it allows clear vision of the cutting line. Ideal for fine finish work such as veneers, laminates, inlays and repairs because they prevent upper edge tear outs. Use Down-cuts for trimming and sizing.

Compression Bits Cuts through stock and gives clean cuts in both top and bottom. No tear out as bit is designed to pull work into the center of the stock. Ideal for double sided veneer plywood, melamine, and laminates. As for size recommendations, it really depends on the specific application you intend to use the bit for. We find that the 1/8″, 1/4″ and 1/2″ Up-cut and the 1/4″ and 1/2″ Compression bits are the most popular for our customers applications. —-Eric Reed

Special thanks to Eric Reed for answering Todd’s question. And be sure to check out Eagle America’s blog, The Cutting Edge for some great woodworking content. The only thing I will add to Eric’s response is my own size/type preferences. Personally, I find 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2″ up-cut to be the most useful. So what about you guys? What do you like to use in your shops and for what purpose?

A brief introduction to the world of flush trim bits. Flush trim bits come in all shapes and sizes, but they all share the same basic anatomy. After watching this video, you’ll have a much better idea of which ones to buy and when to use them. I also do a quick demo using a pattern bit (a variation of the flush trim bit). This video accompanies my upcoming article “Get the Most From Your Router” in the December 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine.

And if you are interested in that big fat pattern bit, you should contact William Ng.

Think you can’t build furniture because you only have a few basic tools? Well, check this out! This walnut low entertainment center was built using three primary tools: a circular saw, a router, and a drill. But that doesn’t mean I skimped on quality and design. The unit has sliding doors, good ventilation, a little shelf in the back for a surge protector, and all of the trim is beveled at an angle for a more interesting visual effect (even the trim on the shelves features this bevel).

This video series is full of tips and tricks that will help you get professional results from these simple power tools!

A few of the topics covered in this part:

• Cutting down sheet goods.
• Using a guide with your circular saw
• The cheapest long rip guide on the planet.
• Plywood thicknesses.
• Cutting dados and grooves with the router.
• Fixing a dado that was cut through when it should have been “stopped”
• Chiseling the stopped dados square.

A Sketchup plan and cut list is on its way. We are hoping to have it by the release of the next part in this series.

And here’s a great clamping tool guide, very similar to the one used in this episode:

All-In-One Clamp Guides The first zero-deflection straight edge clamping guide! Provides you with straighter and more accurate cuts, dadoes and routing without additional clamps. All-In-One Clamp Guides

Quick Links:
Low Entertainment Center Pt. 1
Low Entertainment Center Pt. 2
Low Entertainment Center Pt. 3
Low Entertainment Center Pt. 4
Low Entertainment Center Pt. 5

Now we’re really getting into the meat of the project. I show how to create a jig for the hinge mortises. I also cover the joinery being used to connect the legs to the case. I finish up by cutting the dados and rabbets in the case sides, and show you just how imperfect our machines can be. The router plane saves the day!

This series is now available on DVD! Order your copy today!

Links:
Gadget Station (Pt. 1)
Gadget Station (Pt. 2)
Gadget Station (Pt. 3)
Gadget Station (Pt. 4)
Gadget Station (Pt. 5)
Gadget Station (Pt. 6)
Gadget Station (Pt. 7)
Gadget Station (Pt. 8)
Gadget Station (Pt. 9)
Gadget Station (Pt. 10)
Gadget Station (Pt. 11)
Gadget Station (Pt. 12)

The project is an ottoman tray. It will be a simple piece of 3/4 maple ply with a substantial solid padauk border. The inlay, is a simple interpretation of the sun. So here we go. It all starts with your design. Draw it out exactly how you want it to appear. It helps to have center-line and reference marks as they will make your life easier when it comes time to keep things aligned. Next, position your drawing over the substrate and tape one side in position. Now you can slide in a piece of carbon paper. Simply trace your design thereby transferring it to the substrate. For this design, the reference marks aren’t all that critical since I only need to transfer my design to the substrate once. But if you are doing a more complex design like one of my leaves, you will be re-tracing the design several times. Reference marks are then imperative.

If you haven’t already done so, you want to prepare your inlay stock at this point. I milled up few pieces of padauk for the large spikes and canarywood for the small spikes and the body of the sun. I like to aim for 1/16″-1/8″ thickness for my stock. My drum sander belt is broken so these are a bit larger than I was shooting for. Since I have repeated geometric shapes, my next step was to make a template for each piece out of 1/4″ ply. I simply used the carbon paper to trace the design onto the ply and cut it at the bandsaw.
Then I finessed the edges with sandpaper. If I were doing a leaf design, I would just trace my design directly to my inlay material and cut it out at the bandsaw or scroll saw. So now I use my templates to make my actual inlay pieces. I double-stick taped the template to my inlay stock, rough cut them on the bandsaw, then flush-trimmed them at the router table. These pieces are awefully small to rout, but with the proper precautions, it is possible. Any spots that send up the caution flags were touched up using sandpaper. Then I quickly cut the cararywood into a half circle using a quick rig at the bandsaw.

Now comes the fun part. This part of the process is exactly the same whether you are doing straight lines, geometric shapes, or complex designs. Start by double stick taping the piece to be inlayed into the substrate. Notice that the spikes are being done before the circle. This is because I want to circle to overlap the spikes. If I did it the other way, the continuity of the circle would be ruined. This concept is very important when creating the illusion of depth. The next few steps require a steady hand and patience. Lay off the coffee for a few hours. Or if you like a challenge, drink three cups before you start like I did. With an X-acto knife, carefully trace the outline of the inlay piece. Don’t rush this part. Start with a light touch just severing the top fibers. After a few passes you can increase the pressure and you will have a nice sharp outline.

Once the entire piece is outlined, carefully remove it with a putty knife. Now we need to make that outline a bit more visible. Simply grab your pencil and trace around the outline. Its OK to be sloppy. Then erase the line using strokes perpendicular to the outline. This will make sure the pencil residue gets loaded into the cut while cleaning the rest of the marks.

Now its time to do the routing. I generally use two bits. I hog out the material with a decent sized straight bit. Then I sneak up on the line with a 1/16″ bit. Yes, its THAT small!!! Set the router to cut just a bit shy of the thickness of the inlay material, strap on your helmet, and pray for mercy. A critical tool in this process is the hands-free magnifier. With good lighting, they are worth their weight in gold. Which is probably about $20. Coincidentally that is how much they cost.

Now unfortunately, no picture can do this part justice. With the 1/16″ bit, you really need to be careful when sneaking up to your line. I usually lock the router in the on position and put both hands on the base of the router. This gives me exceptional control. If you aren’t comfortable with this type of maneuver, then don’t do it. But I can’t think of any other way to get the control I need. A key point here is to watch the tearout of the router bit as you approach your line. The cool part is that as you sneak up to the line the little tearouts are clearly evident. But as soon as you kiss the line, the tearouts fly out leaving a nice clean line. That’s how you know you are there. Pre-cutting with the X-acto knife is what makes this possible.

Once the routing is complete, its time to test the fit. The piece will rarely drop right in. Usually the recess needs a bit of work. I use the X-acto knife and a chisel to hit the corner and clean up my edges. As a final touch, I sand a slight chamfer into the inlay piece. This ensures a nice tight wedged fit. Once all the pieces fit nicely, I glue them in place and clamp them down with some sort of caul. In this case, a piece of scrap ply does a fine job.

At this point, I took a lunch break. Turkey, swiss, on wheat. Light mayo. Yogurt (mixed berry). Back to the shop. Now we need to flush everything up. You can use a variety of tools for this. I like to use a block plane to remove the bulk, then I switch to a card scraper or a cabinet scraper. I finish up with a quick sanding. This is also a perfect time to hide any flaws or oopsies. Cyanoacrylate (CA) glue and a little dust from the offending inlay can give nearly undetectable repairs. A quick sanding at 150 and we are ready to add the circle part of the sun. The circle pretty much goes in like the other pieces. After hitting the circle with block plane and smoothing plane, I sanded the whole piece to 220.

As you can see, it is important to plan out the order in which you will apply the inlays. As mentioned before, I wanted to circle of the sun to be the “top-most” part of the image, so it goes on last. With my leaves, I will do one half of a leaf at a time. The leaf that is in the background is done first. The overlapping leaf is then done on top of the first leaf, giving the impression of depth.

And here is the final product with the sculpted padauk frame and several coats of lacquer.

I realize this question is probably a complete beginner’s question, but I saw mention to the concept of a “Router Climb-cut”. Please can you explain what is meant by this? Thank you for helping.

And this was my response:

Hey Ryan. Climb-cutting can be a pretty risky procedure and its something you want to exercise extreme caution when doing. I always try to figure out if there is some other solution before resorting to a climb cut. But to understand climb-cutting, we first need to understand the proper way to run the router. In general, we always want to run the router AGAINST the direction of the bit. If you travel WITH the direction of the bit, the router can easily go out of your control. The best example I can think of is a picture frame. The proper direction when routing the outside of the frame is counter clockwise. For the inside of the frame, you should go clockwise. The reason for the change is because the work is being approached from the opposite side of the bit and in order to go against the bit direction, we need to change our feed direction. So if you remember the picture frame example, you should always be able to look at a workpiece and quickly decide the proper routing direction.

Now let’s look at climb-cutting. When you don’t follow the above rules, you are climb-cutting. Its a situation where you are going WITH the direction of the bit, and as a result, it requires careful attention and slight passes. Its really the same concept behind a planer or drum sander. The work is fed into the machine and the blades are cutting against the feed direction. If you reverse the feed direction, you could easily have a wooden missile on your hands. And the same thing goes for climb-cutting. So if its so dangerous, why do we do it? Well, there are some instances where the grain direction of the wood is not cooperating, and a climb cut simply results in a smoother cut with no tearout. In reality, those instances are few and far between for me. But if you have to do it, be sure you are removing the smallest amount of material possible with each pass and your workpiece is securely clamped down, otherwise you’ll have a serious problem on your hands.

Here is a good article by Tom Hintz over at NewWoodworker.com that should give you a few more tips and warnings: Climb Cutting

Good luck Ryan and be safe.

The router is a versatile shop tool, but its fast-spinning bit can put fingers in jeopardy. Fine Woodworking magazine editor Asa Christiana shares simple tips on how to stay safe by keeping workpieces under control and digits out of harm’s way. For more woodworking tips and techniques, visit FineWoodworking.com.

With so many joints in woodworking, its sometimes difficult to know where to begin. But there is one joint that stands out in my mind as the first joint every woodworker should learn: the mortise and tenon. This is the joint that separates our work from Walmart’s. Are there faster ways to get the job done? Sure. But as woodworkers, with a focus on FINE woodworking, its our obligation to seek out the highest level of quality possible and to go beyond the “get ‘er done” mind set. So with that in mind, check out Part 1 of the mortise and tenon episode where I discuss and demonstrate two common ways to cut a mortise.